Catching on Quickly With a Timely Throw : Olympics: Savanna graduate Okada, youngest member of U.S. judo team, prepares for Barcelona with 15-second victory.

Tony Okada took only 15 seconds to prove he was ready for the Olympics.

Okada, 19, a Savanna High graduate who is the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic judo team, won the gold medal Sunday at the Pan American Union Championships by throwing Venezuela’s Willie Garcia 15 seconds into their 60-kilogram (132-pound) division final.

Okada’s throw, which is equivalent to a knockout in boxing, was his first in a championship match of an international tournament.

“Man, that was beautiful,” Ted Okada, Tony’s father, said. “I think the throw even surprised Tony. But he hasn’t peaked yet and he told me, ‘In the Olympics, that’s when I’ll peak.’ ”

In July, Tony will try to become the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in judo.

“I think he has a great chance,” U.S. Coach Yoshida Yonezuka said. “A lot of it will depend on the luck of the draw.”

The Olympic tournament is a single-elimination, blind-draw tournament.

“When Tony was 11 or 12, he said he wanted to make the ’88 Olympic team when he was 15, and I laughed at him,” Ted said. “But he made it in ‘92, and he already made me eat some of my words, so I don’t tell him he can’t win the gold.

“If you’re happy just to be at the Olympics, you’re cheating yourself and the others you beat out who wanted to be there.”

Tony said simply, “I’m going over there to win the gold medal.”

While Ted talks with a father’s pride, his less gregarious son lets his work on the mat speak for itself.

Tony won State wrestling championships for Savanna at different weight classes in ’90 and ’91.

“I’ve never had anyone as good as he has been from year to year,” Savanna wrestling Coach Tom Caspari said after watching Okada win his second consecutive State title in March, 1991.

That consistency led to numerous college scholarship offers, but Okada took the 1991-92 academic year off to train for the 1992 Olympic team.

The training paid immediate dividends as Okada won gold medals at the U.S. Olympic Festival last July and the U.S. International Invitational Championships last November.

Okada faced his toughest test during February’s U.S. Olympic trials at Colorado Springs, Colo. He entered the trials ranked No. 1 nationally at 60 kilograms, but a loss to John Matsuoka in the first round of the preliminaries jeopardized his Olympic hopes.

Matsuoka trailed late in the match but pulled off the upset by throwing Okada.

“That match didn’t look like Tony,” Ted Okada said. “I think there was so much pressure on him, he just didn’t want to lose. He relaxed and got dumped.”

The top-ranked competitor in each weight class is afforded one loss, and Okada took advantage of the reprieve by defeating Eddie Liddie in a best-of-three match. He defeated Liddie, 2-1, to make the Olympic team and then continued his run by winning the U.S. senior open championships in April.

The Pan American Union championships was the final pre-Olympic tournament. Okada is currently in New Jersey training with the U.S. team and will return home next week before leaving for Barcelona.

When he reaches Barcelona, Okada will be living a dream he’s had since he began judo at age 5. Judo runs deep in the Okada bloodlines.

Ted met his wife, Carol, at a judo dojo (club). Kenny Okada, Ted’s brother, made the 1972 Olympic judo team. Ted currently runs the judo dojo at the Orange County Buddhist Church in Anaheim, less than one mile from the Okada’s home in Stanton.

“Judo is more than a sport, it’s like a religion--a way of life,” Ted said.

That way of life for Tony meant searching for adequate sparring partners. In judo, there are few people of world-class caliber in Southern California. So Ted and Tony made nightly trips in the fall and winter to the Los Angeles dojo, Tenrikyo, where some of the best in Southern California train.

Tony also trained for a short time in Japan.

“At the Tenri in Japan, Tony attained sazuke , which is like the first step into ministry,” Ted said. “I think Tony was the first American to attend and pass all of the required classes for sazuke .”

And now Tony wants to be the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in judo.